I usually run for an hour every Sunday morning in the Bois de la Cambre/Terkamerenbos in the south of Brussels. While running, I listen to my MP3 player. When you're running there is, of course, very little else you can do, so you tend to concentrate more on the music.
So during this hour or so I get the opportunity to really re-listen to my supposed musical tastes. Out of a large number of CDs I have had to select only 194 tracks to put on my MP3 (it is not, of course, an iPod); these 194 tracks should, therefore, represent those I like most; and to a great extent they do. But inevitably, the constant repetition of the same tracks over and over (I also listen to my MP3 on the way too and from work), makes clear that I don't, in fact, really like some of them. Some tracks I look forward to, and other I skip when they start playing. This has been a small revelation to me, as I had thought I liked them all.
So which are the winners and losers?
The tracks I skip past tend to be from Brian Ferry, Prodigy, and one or two from New Order. The current 'winners', that I look forward to, are also from the same era, and include Blondie, the Ramones, REM, and odd tracks by Black Sabbath (Paranoid, of course), The Buzzcocks, Tracy Chapman, and Steve Harley and the Cockney Rebels. Newer stuff includes NWA, Motorhead, The White Stripes, and the Cranberries. Some tracks by New Order and Prodigy remain among those I look forward to.
It's time for a cull. My MP3 is full to capacity, so I have to cut some tracks in order to make room for new ones. I think the old crooner, Brian Ferry is going to almost disappear. But who will replace him? I don't like a lot of the recent music, which I find fairly tuneless and dull (the Kooks, Coldplay, Radiohead, etc, though I increasingly like the Kaiser Chiefs), so I might have to go back and look through my CDs again.
Tuesday 28 October 2008
Sunday 26 October 2008
Siren City
I live quite near one of the main arteries in Brussels. This means that, apart from good transport links, I am exposed to some noise from the sirens of the police, ambulances, and fire brigade. I don't mind this, as I reckon that the faster they get to where they're going, the better. It might be me that needs one of them one day!
But the other day I was crossing the road, when a car with a loud siren came racing down the road. Like everyone else, on foot or in cars, I made way for the emergency vehicle, only to see, as it passed me, that it was a vehicle from the water service! The water service .... ? What possible emergency were they in such a hurry to get to? A dripping tap?
So maybe all those sirens that provide the backing track to my city life are not as important as I thought. How many other non-urgent services have sirens on their vehicles? If they do not have a real life-and-death reason to be able to over-ride normal traffic rules, and demand privileged treatment, then they should not have sirens.
But the other day I was crossing the road, when a car with a loud siren came racing down the road. Like everyone else, on foot or in cars, I made way for the emergency vehicle, only to see, as it passed me, that it was a vehicle from the water service! The water service .... ? What possible emergency were they in such a hurry to get to? A dripping tap?
So maybe all those sirens that provide the backing track to my city life are not as important as I thought. How many other non-urgent services have sirens on their vehicles? If they do not have a real life-and-death reason to be able to over-ride normal traffic rules, and demand privileged treatment, then they should not have sirens.
I was a millionaire
I own property in Ireland. Thanks to the enormous bubble in house prices since the mid 1990s (see Figure 2 on page 4 of this paper) I became a paper millionaire for a few years. It was, of course, only a 'feel-good' fortune - I had no intention of ever selling my home, or even using it as collateral to fund an affluent lifestyle. Now, thanks to the inevitable reversal of the Irish property boom, I am no longer a millionaire. But so what? Since I wasn't ever going to sell the house, and since I continued to enjoy the same level of pleasure from it when it was expensive as when it was cheap, am I any worse off? The answer, clearly, is no. I was lucky to have the house when it was worth next to nothing, I was lucky to own it when it was worth a fortune, and I will be lucky to own it in the future, regardless of the state of the property market.
Monday 13 October 2008
Amsterdam, by Ian McEwan
This book won the 1998 Booker Prize, so I expected great things of it. I had recently read, and greatly enjoyed, the 1997 Booker Prize winner - The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy - and I usually find Booker Prize winners and shortlisted books to be excellent.
I was surprised, then, to find that it read more like a short story than an important novel. I kept waiting for its genius to shine out, but then it just went and ended. Without any genius. Or any shining. In fact, it was so forgettable that I've already almost forgotten it.
Admittedly, the 1998 Booker Shortlist was not a particularly strong one, though it did have Patrick McCabe's Breakfast on Pluto on it - a much stronger book which, with the benefit of my recent hindsight, probably should have won.
Ian McEwan was short-listed again, in 2001 with Atonement, which I have yet to read (its on my shelf at home, though). I hope that turns out to be better. The film of Atonement is currently in the cinema but I am reluctant to go and see it before I read the book. By the time I do read it, though, the film will have disappeared from the cinema, and I'll have to wait for the DVD. Such a dilemma!
I was surprised, then, to find that it read more like a short story than an important novel. I kept waiting for its genius to shine out, but then it just went and ended. Without any genius. Or any shining. In fact, it was so forgettable that I've already almost forgotten it.
Admittedly, the 1998 Booker Shortlist was not a particularly strong one, though it did have Patrick McCabe's Breakfast on Pluto on it - a much stronger book which, with the benefit of my recent hindsight, probably should have won.
Ian McEwan was short-listed again, in 2001 with Atonement, which I have yet to read (its on my shelf at home, though). I hope that turns out to be better. The film of Atonement is currently in the cinema but I am reluctant to go and see it before I read the book. By the time I do read it, though, the film will have disappeared from the cinema, and I'll have to wait for the DVD. Such a dilemma!
Another World, by Pat Barker
Almost by chance, I read a few of Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy books last year and found them unexpectedly good. So when I found Another World in the Oxfam Bookshop in Uccle recently I bought it.
It was a disappointment. She returned to her First World War theme, but indirectly through the memories of an old man who is, himself, only one of the charachters of the book. But all the characters are shallow and undeveloped, and the book ends up being an uncoordinated clutter of clichés without a convincing central plot. Even the dénouement, when it finally comes, is a damp squib, because by then the reader (well, this one anyway) has long since stopped caring.
Indian summer
At the moment in Brussels we are enjoying an Indian summer (this is somewhat like an Irish summer, only warmer, drier, and more pleasant!). Yesterday it was a pleasure to be out and about in Brussels, and many many people were enjoying that pleasure. Town was thronged with locals, tourists and day-trippers from all over. Every pavement café was full, and the parks, streets, and squares were full of people sunning themselves, reading on park benches, cycling, walking, playing with their kids, and so on.
In the morning I was in the Bois de la Cambre, the green lung in the south of the city. Although normally its internal roads are full of speeding cars, on Sundays half of it is closed to traffic and becomes an oasis of calm and relaxation. It is full of walkers, joggers, kids learning to ride bikes, older people learning to roller-blade, dog-walkers, pick-nickers, and amateur footballers.
In the afternoon I cycled around the city; the canal area, Place Flagey, the Bourse, Place Royal, the Park van Brussel, Matonge, the Cinquantenaire Park, and many places in between. What is immediately obvious when you cycle, is just how small Brussels is (geographically), but how much it squeezes in. There are so many different areas, so much to see, so many beautiful building, and so many grotty ones. By turning a single corner you can go from the grottiness of the poor housing near the canal to the trendiness of the Saint Catherine area. And everywhere, in every quartier, there are hundreds of cafés and restaurants, each looking (and smelling) very inviting - some get mentally noted for a later and more leasurely visit!
On days like yesterday it is truly a pleasure to be living in Brussels. Lets hope thee are many more like it.
In the morning I was in the Bois de la Cambre, the green lung in the south of the city. Although normally its internal roads are full of speeding cars, on Sundays half of it is closed to traffic and becomes an oasis of calm and relaxation. It is full of walkers, joggers, kids learning to ride bikes, older people learning to roller-blade, dog-walkers, pick-nickers, and amateur footballers.
In the afternoon I cycled around the city; the canal area, Place Flagey, the Bourse, Place Royal, the Park van Brussel, Matonge, the Cinquantenaire Park, and many places in between. What is immediately obvious when you cycle, is just how small Brussels is (geographically), but how much it squeezes in. There are so many different areas, so much to see, so many beautiful building, and so many grotty ones. By turning a single corner you can go from the grottiness of the poor housing near the canal to the trendiness of the Saint Catherine area. And everywhere, in every quartier, there are hundreds of cafés and restaurants, each looking (and smelling) very inviting - some get mentally noted for a later and more leasurely visit!
On days like yesterday it is truly a pleasure to be living in Brussels. Lets hope thee are many more like it.
Monday 6 October 2008
Brussels No-public-transport Day
Following on from the (limited) success of Brussels No-car Day on 20 September, today, thanks largely to the trade unions representing well-protected public sector employees, we are enjoying No Public Transport Day.
Yes, today is either:
Yes, today is either:
- Brussels 'walk-to-work' day,
- Brussels 'drive-to-work' day (thereby negating the good you might have done on no-car day),
- Brussels 'cycle-through-the angry-cars' day, or,
- Brussels 'have-an-involuntary-long-weekend' day
At least it isn't raining!
Since there are neither trams, metros or buses, I chose to walk to work. I hadn't ever done it before (and to be honest, hadn't intended to try it today, but someone took the key of the bike-lock to work with her ... ). It took me a little less than 30 minutes, and wasn't unpleasant. Given that it can take 20 minutes door to door using the metro, that isn't bad.
I saw several cyclists who looked like they were not used to the traffic, and on a few occasions looked as if they were a danger to themselves. I suppose no-one will publish a comparison of the figures for cyclist or pedestrian casuaties today compared with a 'normal' day. If such a comparison showed a doubling of the death/injury rate due to the lack of public transport, what effect would that have on the strike-happy 'workers'?
Of course, as a good tolerant liberal, I support every workers right to strike. But still, it is a bit pointless of the rail, metro and bus workers to (as usual) punish their customers! Surely, if they want to make some point to their employers they could continue to work, but refuse to gather fares.
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